120 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



this long ago, and I saw exactly the same thing one 

 day a year or two since, and again at Christmas, 1907. 

 The rabbits instead of crossing the open space within 

 range of the gun will make a wide circuit across the 

 open common. On the first shooting day of the season, 

 on the other hand, they usually cross the open space 

 within range. I have often been amused by the way 

 rabbits, when the scent is poor, will behave in covert, 

 with terriers and spaniels giving tongue loudly all 

 around. They will hop gingerly about the thickets, 

 often stopping to listen ; they will quietly dodge and 

 double, and having satisfied themselves as to where 

 lies safety and where danger, steal away. A rabbit has 

 crept up to within a few yards of me, and stood still to 

 listen to the dogs yapping and tearing about on the 

 other side of the thicket. Once in December a rabbit 

 came so near I could easily have touched it with my 

 gun, and when I offered to do this it hardly stirred a 

 foot. Whilst it sat up just within the thicket among 

 some dead fern and grass, its sensitive ears kept moving, 

 for the rabbit trusts more to ear than eye. 



These are not instances of special intelligence in 

 individual rabbits. They are common to the wild 

 rabbits of our wood ; rabbits generally will steal about 

 and listen when they are being hustled hotly by dogs 

 that are confused by a bad scenting day; rabbits 

 generally, I have no doubt, will avoid crossing certain 

 open spots where they know by recent experience, 

 by memory, there is danger. These are habits of 



